Golf Advisor's 50 toughest courses, according to your reviews

Golfers rated these 50 courses the most difficult you can play on Golf Advisor. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)No. 50: Near Indianapolis, Prairie View Golf Club is a tough Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design. (User Hacksalot03/Golf Advisor)No. 49: Said reviewer ronsheldrick of Ontario's The Club at Bond Head North: "Amazing views and tough reaching the fairway for me on some of the holes that have a long carry. Next time white tees for me!" (Golf Advisor )No. 48: The Nicklaus Course at Pronghorn winds through high desert in central Oregon. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)No. 47: On Vancouver Island, the Nicklaus Course at Bear Mountain is a stunning and challenging layout. (Mike Bailey/Golf Advisor)No. 46: Near Naples, Fla., Old Corkscrew is an all-natural and difficult Jack Nicklaus design. (Courtesy of Old Corkscrew G.C.)No. 45: As the host of the WGC Match Play Championships, Dove Mountain Golf Club received plenty of critical acclaim for its sloping greens. (Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain)No. 44: One of the newest Jack Nicklaus designs in the U.S., Harbor Shores in Michigan has plenty of undulation around the greens. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)No. 43: Chambers Bay hosted the 2015 U.S. Open, won by Jordan Spieth. (Getty Images)No. 42: The wind off of the ocean can whip across the par-3 16th green of The Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, Calif. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)No. 41: The fifth hole at Pinehurst No. 2 is generally regarded as one of golf's toughest par 4s. (Getty Images)No. 40: In the Carolina Sandhills, Tobacco Road is one of Mike Strantz's finest gems open to the public. (Courtesy of Tobacco Road G.C.)No. 39: The Credit River comes into play on many holes on the Lionhead Golf & Country Club's Legends Course. (Courtesy of Lionhead Golf & C.C.)No. 38: Pete Dye's Pound Ridge Golf Club sits less than an hour north of New York City. (Courtesy of Jim Krajicek/Pound Ridge G.C.)No. 37: The par-4 14th hole shows off Thoroughbred Golf Club's secluded setting. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)No. 36: The par-3 15th hole at Muskoka area's Oak Bay Golf & Country Club is a stunner. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)No. 35: Iowa's Amana Colonies Golf Course has a reputation as being one of the state's toughest and most scenic public courses. (Courtesy of Amana Colonies)No. 34: Shadow Creek is a lavish Las Vegas experience, but it's also rated as quite difficult, too. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)No. 33: The 11th hole on the Old Course at Ballybunion is one of Ireland's most epic par 4s. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)No. 32: In North Vancouver, B.C., Northlands is a narrow, mountainous Les Furber design. (Courtesy of Northlands G.C.)No. 31: It's a rugged round at Champions Club at the Retreat in Corona, Calif., where user hbtim1967 says you need to keep the ball in play. (Golf Advisor)No. 30: Ontario's Otter Creek Golf Club winds through the scenic, wooded valleys of Otter, Cedar, and Spittler Creeks. (Courtesy of Otter Creek G.C.)No. 29: A giant rock wall lines the 10th hole of Deerhurst Highlands Course at Deerhurst Resort in Ontario. (Courtesy of Deerhurst Resort)No. 28: Lost Key Golf Club offers a spectacular target-golf experience capitalizing on the beauty of Perdido Key, southwest of Pensacola, Fla. (Courtesy of Golf Gulf Shores)No. 27: B.C.'s Tobiano Golf Course serves up beautiful scenery from start to finish. (Wes Gilbertson/Golf Advisor)No. 26: The Conservatory Course at Hammock Beach in Palm Coast, Fla. can play as long as 7,776 yards from the tips. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)

For many golfers, the beauty of the game is the fact that it's the ultimate sporting challenge. It takes a lifetime, if we're lucky, to master. And even so, there are far more days the game defeats us than we prevail.

We've dug into the nearly 500,000 reviews on Golf Advisor to see which courses are being hailed as the most challenging. When you post a review on Golf Advisor, one of the optional fields is to grade the difficulty of the course from five options. We assigned each selection a numerical value 1-5, with "extremely challenging" assigned a score of 5. About 75 percent of all reviews have a course difficulty rating. These are reviews from golfers of all ages and handicaps, playing the tees they felt the should play on that day.

The results have plenty of expected names from some of the most infamous designs in golf. Others are more under the radar, known to locals as severe tests. You'll see some familiar names here: a few major championship and pro golf venues, as well as some of the most storied links golf courses in Ireland. Architects like Jack Nicklaus (7), Pete Dye (7), Robert Trent Jones Jr. (5) have the most entries in this top 50.

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When assessing a course's difficulty, its championship yardage, slope and rating only tells part of the story. Often times, a course's setup (like pin locations), conditions (rough height or green speeds) and weather (wind or wetness) play an even bigger role than the design. And just because a course might be manageable for low-handicappers, it may be an entirely different beast for higher handicaps.

So if you crave the sternest of tests, keep this list in mind, compiled by golfers all over the world, and features not just U.S. courses, but bruisers in Canada and Ireland as well.

Golf Advisor's 50 toughest courses

Carmel, Ind. Yardage: 7,073 | Slope/rating: 137/74.8 Architect: Robert Trent Jones Jr. What they're saying: "Prairie holes and several that went into the woods and were lined with trees." - Jesse5296632

Pebble Beach, Calif. Yardage: 6,821 | Slope/Rating: 140/74.0 Architect: Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom WatsonWhat they're saying: "Almost every shot off line will be swallowed by dunes or trees on the higher holes of the back nine. " - JasonDeeganGA

Amana, IowaYardage: 6,824 | Slope/Rating: 142/72.8Architect: William J. SpearWhat they're saying: "The course's natural beauty can also be enjoyed by the novice player who brings an extra box (not sleeve) of balls!" - coppersmith

Huntsville, Ontario, CanadaYardage: 7,011 | Slope/Rating: 140/75.1 Architect: Thomas McBroom, Bob CuppWhat they're saying: "When it was built they didn't give you a lot of bail out room like they give you on the newer courses." - Reidb

Palm Coast, Fla.Yardage: 7776 | Slope/Rating: 150/78.2 Architect: Tom WatsonWhat they're saying: "I'm a low handicap player and would NOT even think of playing the back tees! 7700 yards is just insane!" - golfismylife223

Brandon Tucker is the Managing Editor for Golf Advisor. To date, his golf travels have taken him to over two dozen countries and over 500 golf courses worldwide. While he's played some of the most prestigious courses in the world, Tucker's favorite way to play the game is on a great muni in under three hours. Follow Brandon on Twitter at @BrandonTucker and on Instagram at BrandonTuckerGC.